At NY Anti-Trafficking Network, people ask us all the time, “What should I do if I see or meet someone who may be trafficked? How do I help in the moment?” It can be difficult to tell if a person has been trafficked, and it takes time and understanding to see how you can help. Learn more about how you can support someone you think may be a victim or survivor of trafficking.

What You Need To Know

If you see someone you think may be trafficked, it’s a good thing you are showing compassion and interest in your fellow community members. But it’s important to stay calm and not to panic, and to think carefully about what that person might need, rather than rushing in to help.

It’s very difficult to tell if a person is being trafficked from just looking at someone or from only one or a few conversations. There is no formula or “quick fix” to figuring this out.

If you act quickly without understanding a person’s situation, the trafficker could be nearby, putting them in more danger. And calling the police or 911, especially without that person’s knowledge or consent, can be very dangerous. It may actually result in the person being arrested or deported.

If you regularly see someone whom you think may be trafficked, slowly build a relationship with that person. Be friendly, engage in small talk, make eye contact, and let them know over time you’re someone they can trust and you’re willing to be a resource.

At times, people feel a strong emotional response when they think they are meeting someone who may be trafficked, and they want to rush in and try to “rescue” the person who may be a victim.

The problem with this “rescuer” mentality is it takes the focus away from the survivor and puts it on the so-called “rescuer” and his or her point of view.

This has a negative consequence: It sidelines the voices of survivors and their ability to make their own decisions and reclaim their own voice, dignity, and ability to move forward in life.

If you see a situation that might involve trafficking, call a qualified and trusted organization that works with trafficking survivors and they can help foster a human rights approach and expertly navigate the possibilities for helping a person at risk.

If you know someone is trafficked, or if you believe they need help, once you have built up a trusting relationship, there are concrete and non-intrusive things you can do through everyday interactions.

Give them a cell phone they can use on their own.

Offer phone numbers for trafficking hotlines or domestic violence shelters, or tell them about how 911 works.

Tell them where the nearest hospital is.

It’s important to remember, even if you aren’t sure in the moment if a person is trafficked or you’re not able to reach out and help, there is still a lot you can do to support survivors and end trafficking! Watch our video on how you can help.

Trafficking happens in a wide range of low-wage industries, including sex work. In most places around the world, engaging in sex work can get you arrested. This actually makes it harder for sex workers and survivors of trafficking to seek help when they need it. Learn more about why it’s important to decriminalize sex work and keep people out of the criminal justice system.

What You Need To Know

People engage in sex work for a variety of reasons, most often because they need to support themselves and their families, and their other work options won’t pay enough for a living wage. At NY Anti-Trafficking Network, we often say, people engage in sex work because of choice, circumstance, or coercion, with life circumstance being the most common reason.

But there are sex workers who face coercion, which is the key element of trafficking. This means they are working in a climate of fear, or in isolation or abuse, and they are afraid to leave.

Sex workers who have been trafficked may have someone withhold their passport; advertise a job as waitressing when it really involves prostitution; make threats against their family; engage in physical abuse; or threaten to call the police or immigration to make an arrest.

The threat of arrest makes it difficult for a trafficked person to leave, because sex work is considered a crime in most parts of the world.

Many sex workers who have been trafficked are arrested, often repeatedly, before anyone in the criminal justice system understands they need help. Arrest is never an appropriate way to try to help someone who may be a trafficking survivor or is involved in sex work.

Arresting people who may be trafficked only drives them further into vulnerable situations.

Arrests create trauma, chaos, and unintended consequences in a person’s life (for example, affecting their family, children, housing, and co-workers.)

Arrest also adds an additional layer of complex legal consequences into that person’s already complicated and difficult situation. Under U.S. immigration law, even having a prostitution-related arrest on your criminal record can affect a person’s chances to stay on the roadmap to citizenship.

It is also dangerous for sex workers and trafficked people when customers of sex workers get arrested.

When customers are afraid of being arrested, it makes it more difficult for sex workers to negotiate safe conditions and decent pay. Sex workers may also be threatened by police so they will cooperate in a criminal case.

Actually, customers and other brothel workers are often the people who help sex workers leave trafficking situations, since they know more about their lives and daily routines than most of us.

Ultimately, it is protecting the human rights of sex workers and creating better economic options for people that helps to prevent trafficking and to keep sex workers safe.

Trafficking in persons is a global problem, and it can feel overwhelming. But there’s a lot you can do to help. This video explains how we can all come together to support survivors and end trafficking.

What You Need To Know

At NY Anti-Trafficking Network, people ask us all the time, “What can I do to help end trafficking and to help survivors directly?” While trafficking is a global problem, there’s actually a lot you can do to help.

THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW INCLUDE:

Learn what trafficking is and map out your action plan.

Trafficking is about people living and working in a climate of fear, working under force, fraud, or coercion, usually in low-wage industries.

Share this information with friends, co-workers, family, and people in organizations you belong to. Be aware of the conversations people have. When you hear people making jokes or saying things that don’t respect the dignity and voices of survivors, point it out and explain why that’s wrong.

Plan your donations to qualified legal and service providers and advocacy groups with a proven track record for respecting the dignity and human rights of survivors.

In the United States, members of the national Freedom Network serve survivors and advocate on anti-trafficking law and policy.

Other hashtags to follow include #trafficking #forcedlabor #humantrafficking #modernslavery and #supplychains.

Look into supply chains for goods and services you consume, for transparency and accountability.

E-mail companies directly (get the information from their websites) so the leadership and their corporate social responsibility division hear that consumers care.

If you hire domestic workers in your home, make sure you honor the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. When you go to restaurants and nail salons, make sure you treat the workers with respect and tip generously.

Our goal is to end trafficking, and to prevent it from happening in the first place. We also want to help survivors reclaim their voices and their lives. This video delves into the solutions we need that will put an end to trafficking.

What You Need To Know

At NY Anti-Trafficking Network, we focus on helping survivors reclaim their voices and their lives, but we are also working to prevent and end trafficking at the root causes. Prevention is key – and therefore requires taking on the issues that lead people to the vulnerable situations that put them at risk for trafficking in the first place.

These are the long-term solutions we are working toward and calling for:

Survivors of trafficking need a wide range of legal services. It takes expert legal knowledge and experience to work with a survivor as he or she moves through immigration, criminal justice, housing, civil litigation, or family law issues. This video explains how survivors can work with their lawyers on navigating different legal systems.

What You Need To Know

Properly trained lawyers are a critical part of a trafficking survivor’s support team. Expert and qualified lawyers work to protect survivors’ legal rights, which helps people re-gain their own voice and make decisions about how they want to move forward with their lives.

Lawyers who understand the dynamics of trafficking can help survivors tell their stories in a safe way that protects their legal rights and gets them the help they need and deserve. This means:

Listening to survivors explain their understanding of their own experience.

Helping survivors figure out what they want from different legal systems and what their goals are, so the survivor can decide how he or she wants to move forward.

For this reason, lawyers working with trafficking survivors or people at risk should be qualified to provide appropriate legal services, and have the necessary training and expertise in this work. They should also be able to provide linguistically and culturally appropriate legal services.

Trafficking survivors have a wide range of complex legal needs:

Immigration.

Housing.

Civil litigation.

Family law.

Child protection system.

Criminal justice.

Within the criminal justice system, survivors’ legal needs include:

Criminal defense, where a survivor has been arrested, often multiple times.

Essentially erasing the criminal convictions from a survivor’s criminal record (from prior arrests) so he or she can find future employment and safe housing.

Protecting a survivor’s rights and interests as he or she cooperates with law enforcement and prosecutors against a trafficker, if the survivor decides to do so.

Lawyers need to remember, each survivor has a different approach to what he or she wants and needs in order to move forward. Listening and supporting the survivor’s self-determination is key!

May 2018

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